254 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNISTinadequate to keep the project alive, the unhappy leader already
was busy with plans for a new colony in which all movable prop
erty and all real estate would belong to the Arbeiterbund from the
beginning.
No such drastic step was ever taken, however. Weitling again
sought salvation in a new constitution, apparently convinced that
all that was needed was a more detailed plan on paper. He care
fully examined the laws governing incorporations, and in a letter
to an attorney in Dubuque, seeking advice on "the triste situation
in which I am envolved," he chronicled his unhappy experiences
with the colony on financial matters and concluded: "Please sir!
take pity with my situation and sacifice [sic] some of your valu
able time to writ [sic] me a few word [sic] in behalf of this. It
does not matter to me how these troubles end, if only they end."
By the end of March, 1853, Weitling's optimism had revived
because the colony had agreed to accept a new constitution, or
charter, converting Communia under the laws of Iowa into the
Workingmen's League of Communia and transferring title to all
property to this new organization. At the time of the transfer the
stockholders and members of the Bund residing in the colony
totaled twenty, besides Weitling. By the new agreement, the Arbeiterbund agreed to find workers and additional funds for the
development of the colony while the members of the colony
pledged their holdings as security for all funds received. Every
member of the Bund, and each Gemeinde which had loaned the
colony $100 or more for a ten-year period without interest, be
came a "guarantor" or trustee with the right to vote, directly or
by proxy, on all colony matters. By this arrangement Weitling
believed he had established the legal fiction that every member of
the Bund, no matter where he resided, also was a shareholder in the
colony, according to articles of incorporation. This was the main
point in the constitution or charter. The other provisions dealt
with the author's timeworn proposals for a bank of exchange, old-
age pensions, fire insurance, sick benefits, and the like and provided